Day 14 (June 1st 2017) of our May 2017 France road trip: After our morning stroll through the historic center of Briancon we continued our trip towards Mont Blanc via the famous Col du Galibier. Driving northwest from Briancon we passed the nice valley Vallée de la Guisane up to the Col du Lautaret (2058m) and then further up to 2556m. Continuing downhill, via Valloire and Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, we used highways A43/A430 passing Albertville direction Chamonix. On our map below, the day’s track is marked in green.

At the upper part of the Col du Galibier (2556m), the tunnel had to be taken, as the D902B was still closed due to large amounts of snow. The famous Galibier (according to Wikipedia the 9th highest hardened mountain road in Europe) pleased us with great views and scenery driving up- and downhill.

Before continuing our trip northwards on day 14 (June 1st 2017) of our May 2017 France road trip, we took some time off in the morning for a stroll through the impressive historic center of Briancon. Quoting Wikipedia, Briancon at an altitude of 1326m is the highest city in France.

On May 31st, 2017, day 13 of our May 2017 road trip through France, we traveled from Barcelonette to Briancon (route is marked in black in our map below). Originally we intended to take the Col de Vars to reach Guillestre. But a bit late, already close to the Fort de Tournoux, we realized the signs indicating that the Col de Vars was closed that day. So we had to turn around and pass that chain of mountains direction west passing the lake “Lac de Serre-Poncon”.

On the 16th day of our France road trip (June 3rd 2017) we left France from Saint-Gervais-les-Bains via Chamonix and the Arve valley to Martigny in Switzerland. In our map below, the day’s track is marked in wine red.

Having driven through Vallorcines, we then passed the french-swiss border. Because our Hymer ML-T 580 4×4 with a maximum weight of 4050kg surpasses the 3,5 ton limit, we had to take care of the swiss “Lump-sum heavy vehicle charge”. As the border post was not manned, we were able to agree by phone with a friendly officer to pay the fees later that day when leaving Switzerland to Germany.

On day 15 of our France road trip (June 2nd 2017) we made an excursion from Saint-Gervais-les-Bains to Chamonix and the famous viewpoint Montenvers. From there one can observe the glacier “Mer de Glace” (or at least what’s remaining of it). It’s easy to reach Chamonix by camper, there is an affordable parking allowing higher vehicles, from where the town can be reached on foot. Montenvers (1913m) can be reached by the cog railway. In our map below we marked the most important points of the day in brown.

The view to the glacier is impressive for sure, but it’s depressing to realize how much of its volume it has obviously lost over the last couple of years. According to Wikipedia, at Montenvers, the ice is already 130m thinner than before with a decrease rate of 4-6m per year. A reminder to all of us that something needs to change.

Chamonix selbst fanden wir sehenswert, es gibt einen offensichtlichen Focus auf den Handel mit Luxuswaren. Viele Cafés und Restaurants laden zum Verweilen ein. Chamonix we found worth the stroll, there is an obvious focus on the sales with luxury goods. Many cafes and restaurants are inviting you to have a break.

On May 30th, 2017, the 12th day of our road trip “France May 2017”, we have started our return direction north. From Cote d’Azur we went to Jausiers and Barcelonette using one of the highest hardened mountain pass roads of the alps, the “Col de la Bonette” (yellow markers in our overview map, see below).

From Nice we drove the M6202 direction north along the river Var and then turned on the D2205 to follow the river Tinée. The beautiful route brought us also to Saint-Étienne-de-Tinée, where we can definitely recommend to have a stop and break. From there, the road winds up steeply to the mountain pass. We reached a maximum height of 2715m, the road to the Cime de la Bonette (2802m) was unfortunately still closed and blocked by impressive masses of snow.

After a short break in the fresh mountain air, we continued the trip downhill towards Jausiers. As the camping “Le Planet” was still closed, we spent the night in Barcelonette on the camping “Le Tampico”.